GENERAL INFORMATION (UPDATED DECEMBER 8, 2014)

  

StanfordEnergySystemInnovations Page1 

Stanford Energy System Innovations

Introduction

The Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI) project is a $485 million major transformation of 

the campus district energy system.  The transformation is from gas fired combined heat and 

power with steam distribution to electrically powered combined heat and cooling with hot 

water distribution.  When completed in April 2015, the new heat recovery system will be 50% 

more efficient than the existing cogeneration system on a natural gas basis; or 120% more 

efficient when state mandated 33% renewable power is factored in.  SESI will immediately cut 

Stanford’s Category I and II GHG emissions in half; save 15% of Stanford’s drinking water 

supply; and save $300 million (20%) over the next 35 years compared to the existing system. 

The heart of SESI is heat recovery‐ capturing waste heat from the district chilling system to 

produce hot water for the district heating system.  This is depicted in the following charts of 

daily (summer example) and annual heating and cooling loads. 

 

 

 

  

StanfordEnergySystemInnovations Page2 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stanford Daily Summertime Heating & Cooling Profile

Stanford Annual Heating & Cooling Profile

Heat RecoveryCooling

Heating

  

StanfordEnergySystemInnovations Page3 

Approximately 56% of the waste heat from the chilled water system (currently being discharged 

out evaporative cooling towers) will be reused to meet 91% of campus heating loads through 

the use of industrial heat recovery chillers and conversion of the campus heat distribution 

system from steam to hot water.  Converting from steam to hot water also reduces campus 

heating loads by 10% due to lower distribution line losses.  SESI includes:  

Installation of a new electricity powered central energy facility featuring heat recovery; 

Demolition of the existing cogeneration plant; 

Installation of 20 miles of hot water distribution piping to replace the steam system;  

Conversion of 155 building connections from steam to hot water;  

Installation of a new campus high voltage substation.   

Following are schematics of the SESI system and renderings of the new plant now under 

construction. 

 

 

   

SESI Central Energy Facility 3D Process Schematic

  

StanfordEnergySystemInnovations Page4 

Chiller

Cooling Tower

CWR (52F to 60F)

HeatRecoveryChiller

Heat Exchanger

Hot Water Storage

Cold Water Storage

Hot Water Generator

Heat Exchanger

Heat Exchanger

Full CEF + GSHE System &

Water Loops

Hot Water

Chilled Water

Condenser Water

Ground Water

HWR(120F to 140F)

HWS(150F to 170F)

CWS (40F to 48F)

60F to 64F

80F to 

105F

70F to 85F

38F to 46F(heat 

extraction)

76F to 95F(heat 

rejection)

60F to 64F

   

Stanford Replacement Central Energy Facility Renderings

SESI Central Energy Facility Process Schematic

  

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Project Innovations 

SESI is unique and innovative in design, implementation and impact.  SESI advances heat 

recovery at a district level, achieving direct environmental improvements and cost savings at a 

dramatic scale, while paving a flexible and lasting path for Stanford’s sustainability future.    

SESI adeptly develops for the first time a highly efficient large scale district energy system based 

on electricity powered (full path to sustainability) combined heat and cooling rather than fossil 

fuel fired (questionable path to sustainability) combined heat and power, achieving gas high 

heating value (HHV)  trigeneration efficiency greater than 100% due to the large amount of 

waste heat recovery.  SESI utilizes both large scale hot water and cold water thermal energy 

storage.   

   

Stanford Replacement Central Energy Facility Site Plan

  

StanfordEnergySystemInnovations Page6 

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htr 4, 0

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unmet hw demand, 0

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unmet hw demand, 0

unmet hw demand, 0unmet hw demand, 0

unmet hw demand, 0

unmet hw demand, 0

unmet hw demand, 0

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unmet hw demand, 0

unmet hw demand, 0

unmet hw demand, 0

(1,600)

(1,200)

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(200)

(100)

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hrc 1 cw hrc 2 cw hrc 3 cw hrc 4 cw chl 1 chl 2 chl 3 chl 4

cw from tes unmet cw demand hrc 1 hw hrc 2 hw hrc 3 hw hrc 4 hw htr 1 htr 2

htr 3 htr 4 hw from tes unmet hw demand total cw demand total hw demand cw storage balance hw storage balance

Wednesday, July 15, 2020 Thursday, July 16, 2020

Stanford UniversityCentral Energy Plant Optimization Model (CEPOM)

CEF Dispatch

SESI combines cutting edge technology from both North American and European district energy 

systems:  

North America o Overall system design (AEI‐ Affiliated Engineers, Inc.) o Architects (ZGF) o Structural/Geotechnical (Rutherford + Chekene) o Construction (Whiting Turner) o Heat recovery chillers & chillers (York) o Controls (JCI) o HW system design & operations consultation (District Energy St. Paul) o HW generators (Cleaver Brooks) o Peer review (Jacobs Carter Burgess, Black & Veatch, Enginomix, Navigant) o GSHE/Steam to Hot Water Conversion Consultation (Ball State Univ.; Univ. of 

British Columbia) Europe

o HW system design & operations consultation (COWI Denmark, FVB Sweden) o HW distribution piping system (LOGSTOR Denmark) o HW system modeling (Termis 7T/Schneider Electric Denmark) o Building HW‐HW heat exchangers (Alfa Laval Sweden) o Substation components (Siemens Italy) 

 Another SESI innovation is a new software program created by Stanford (US Patent 8,903,554) 

for optimizing the planning, design, and operation of combined heating and cooling plants with 

both hot and cold thermal energy storage (TES).  It provides new tools for predictive load 

forecasting, economic 

dispatching, and plant 

optimization and 

automation for SESI.  

This new program is 

being further 

developed by outside 

companies to provide 

new tools to central 

energy plants of all 

types to improve their 

energy and economic 

efficiency.  

  

StanfordEnergySystemInnovations Page7 

Financial Advantages  

Nine major options for Stanford’s next energy system were developed in detail, including: 

gas fired cogeneration and steam distribution (business as usual Third Party vs. Stanford 

owned & operated) 

gas fired cogeneration with hot water distribution 

hybrid cogeneration + heat recovery with hot water distribution (Turbine and IC engine 

options) 

heat recovery plant with hot water distribution (Grid + Heat Recovery option) 

conventional boilers and chillers central plant (Grid, No Heat Recovery option) 

Grid + Heat recovery plant with 20% to 33% on‐site PV power 

These options were modeled for energy and exergy efficiency, economics, and environmental 

impact and subjected to substantial peer review.  Results are presented in the chart below 

which compares the life cycle cost of each option as well as the relative GHG emissions and 

water use.  Based on these results Stanford selected the electrically powered combined heat & 

cooling plant with hot water distribution (option 6) as its new base energy system and is 

advancing study on the feasibility of adding some amount of on‐site PV power to the scheme. 

  

StanfordEnergySystemInnovations Page8 

As shown the selected option, heat recovery + hot water distribution represents the lowest life 

cycle cost and also presents one of the lowest up front capital cost options since on‐site power 

generation infrastructure is avoided.   

Project Challenges

SESI is a complete transformation of Stanford’s district energy system from gas fired combined 

heat and power (CHP) to electricity powered combined heat and cooling (CHC).  The conversion 

was performed in multiple phases as shown below and required major coordination with a very 

large and diverse campus research and residential community. Several building conversions 

from steam to hot water required special work due to their historical nature and use of steam 

radiators throughout for space heating. 

   SESI Building Conversion and Steam‐To‐Hot Water Conversion Phases

  

StanfordEnergySystemInnovations Page9 

‐6000

‐4000

‐2000

0

2000

4000

6000

mm

btu

Stanford UniversityHeat Recovery Potential (2015)

PotentialHeat RecoveryCooling

Heating

Potential for Ground Source Heat Exchange

Potential for Ground Source Heat Exchange

Looking Ahead

Several potential enhancements to SESI are being investigated by Stanford at this time.  

Ground Source Heat Exchange 

Ground Source Heat 

Exchange (GSHE) 

could augment the 

basic heat recovery 

scheme of SESI by 

providing a more 

sustainable way to 

meet the remaining 

winter heating and 

summer cooling 

needs of the 

university that can’t 

be met by building 

heat recovery.  

Recently completed 

studies including 

exploratory borings 

to fully map 

subsurface 

hydrogeology, 

regulatory reviews, 

and conceptual 

system designs 

indicate that GSHE 

may be a feasible 

addition to SESI and 

this will be explored 

further after the 

system is 

commissioned.  

  

StanfordEnergySystemInnovations Page10 

On‐site Photovoltaic Power 

Stanford has completed the conceptual design of a 5.8MW of on‐campus photovoltaic (PV) 

power generation system with solar panels on over a dozen major buildings and the largest 

parking garage on campus.  A system this size is capable of supplying about 3% of the 

university’s total electricity and would meet about 20% of campus load at times of peak daily 

demand.  Stanford is also exploring much larger scale off‐campus renewable electricity 

generation as part of its grid electricity sourcing effort as described later in this report. Both the 

on‐ and off‐campus renewable power generation opportunities will be considered as Stanford 

finalizes the composition of its power portfolio to begin April 1, 2015 when the cogeneration 

plant is decommissioned. 

 

  

StanfordEnergySystemInnovations Page11 

Plug‐In Electric Vehicle System 

Stanford has begun electrification of the 

Marguerite bus fleet and campus small 

vehicle fleets and the number of commuters 

using PEVs is also growing steadily.  To 

support the adaption of electric vehicles 

Stanford is in the process of designing a 

campus wide plug in electric vehicle charging 

system for use by both commuters and 

university vehicles.  The system will support 

both Level II and DC fast charging, will be 

distributed throughout the campus for convenience, will be expandable based on demand, and 

will be managed as part of the overall campus energy demand management system.  The total 

estimated electricity use from a fully electrified campus fleet plus 5% to 10% of commuter 

vehicles is about equal to the electricity that will be generated from the new photovoltaic 

power generating system to be installed on the campus.  Installation of the PEV charging 

system is expected to begin in the spring of 2015. 

Electricity Supply  

Upon retirement of the existing Cardinal Cogeneration plant in 2015 Stanford will rely primarily 

on electricity supplied by the California grid.  Having achieved Direct Access to the state’s 

electricity markets the university is now in a position to control its power portfolio and shape its 

future energy supply to meet the risk, economic, and environmental profile established by 

university leadership.  Work to develop Stanford’s long term electricity supply strategy and 

initiate the grid power procurement process to start next year is now underway. 

Conclusion

In addition to teaching, research, and public service in the field of sustainability Stanford 

University is committed to practicing sustainability in its own operations and is making 

significant transformations of the campus toward that goal.  The Stanford Energy System 

Innovations program is but one example and will provide the university an efficient, economic, 

and sustainable energy system for the 21st century. 

More information on SESI may be found at: http://sustainable.stanford.edu/sesi